My father's Royal Navy badges ?

[Alan Y]

Hello all
I would like some information on what I believe are my father’s Navy trade or qualification badges and Tally’s please. I imagine the crossed rifles is a marksman’s badge but I don’t know what the other is. I have only a limited knowledge of his service, he died when I was quite young and there are only a few things that were passed down through the family. I know he joined the Navy pre-WW2 and possibly trained at HMS Osprey, the Shore Establishment, before joining HMS Folkestone. I cannot locate the Tally for that ship, but I seem to remember it as a boy. There is an album with quite a few photographs of him and other sailors aboard this ship in ‘whites’ and others in harbour, all of which are in an album which appears to have been made in the East. Also I remember finding some negatives of these in packets with Chinese as well as English labelling, probably Hong Kong from memory.
The other Tally’s were with the other items but I could not as yet say if he served aboard those ships or if he collected them from other sailors he knew. According to the family information, he was invalided out of the RN during the War, probably from ill health as he died of a heart attack in 1961. At some point I would like to trace his service record when I have the time.
The Norwegian badge I have no idea about, other than it was with the others when I found them. There was also a Bosun’s Whistle, which again, I could not say if it was his. The attached photograph shows him in uniform and under a magnifying glass I can just about read HMS Folkestone.
Thanks in advance – Alan Y.

RN1.jpg RN2.jpg RN3.jpg RN4.JPG RN5.JPG

[Alex Rice]

Hi Alan
The first trade badge with the single star is for an anti-aircraft gunner, third class, I believe. The other one was for a marksman but I don't know anything about the requirement to qualify for that one.
Good luck with your research.
Cheers,
Alex

[Alan Y]

Thanks for the information Alex. The only reference I have at hand at the moment for RN insignia is in a WW1 Naval book and some images I scanned from a friend’s Naval Handbook which he had while he was in service during the late 1960’s. All the gunnery badges in that have a crossed pair of guns rather than a single one along with various letters, stars & crowns. Both that book and the WW1 book have the crossed rifles as a ‘Good Shooting’ badges, so that appears to have remained as a standard badge. The WW1 book also has three badges which show a pair of crossed guns and various star & crown markings for various trades. There are two badges with singles horizontal guns like mine, one with a single star on top of the gun but no letter A, signifying Seaman Gunner and the other with one star above the gun and two below signifying Captain of the Gun 1st Class. From these I had surmised it was probably some gunnery trade badge, but your Anti-Aircraft qualification was something I hadn’t thought of. I’ll try and get some reference on WW2 badges as these appear to be different from the two ends of the scale of the ones I have – Regards Alan

[sailorbear]

Originally Posted by Alan Y

Thanks for the information Alex. The only reference I have at hand at the moment for RN insignia is in a WW1 Naval book and some images I scanned from a friend’s Naval Handbook which he had while he was in service during the late 1960’s. All the gunnery badges in that have a crossed pair of guns rather than a single one along with various letters, stars & crowns. Both that book and the WW1 book have the crossed rifles as a ‘Good Shooting’ badges, so that appears to have remained as a standard badge. The WW1 book also has three badges which show a pair of crossed guns and various star & crown markings for various trades. There are two badges with singles horizontal guns like mine, one with a single star on top of the gun but no letter A, signifying Seaman Gunner and the other with one star above the gun and two below signifying Captain of the Gun 1st Class. From these I had surmised it was probably some gunnery trade badge, but your Anti-Aircraft qualification was something I hadn’t thought of. I’ll try and get some reference on WW2 badges as these appear to be different from the two ends of the scale of the ones I have – Regards Alan

Hi there, Not sure if theses will be of any help,

Regards Tony

[Alan Y]

Hello Tony,
Thanks for the information. I particularly found the progress chart from entering the service for RN Gunnery of interest. It certainly looks as if my father went along the Anti-Aircraft path and obtained the first qualification badge shown. As he was in the RN just before the War, I cannot be exact yet, he might have started his training there and either changed direction during the War or qualified higher in the AA trade, but as yet I have not found any other badges to verify anything. He would have been 20 years old in 1939 so might have been in a couple of years before War broke out. Most of his photo’s are aboard HMS Folkestone and are in the East, but after a quick look on the Internet I found out that HMS Duncan was in China before the outbreak of War and was then sent to the Mediterranean, and this is also listed in Warships of World War II by H.T. Lenton & J.J. Colledge of which I have a copy. It might be that he transferred to HMS Duncan or joined it later, but I haven’t had much time to follow it up yet.
The trade badges are very similar to the ones I have a scanned image of, probably from a similar publication, but thanks for those as well – Regards Alan.